Download Performing arts surviving across county In the studio

25
November 2010
Performing arts surviving across county
by Shelly Mato
Cultural opportunities, including live
entertainment– music, theatre, and dance –
comprise one measure of quality of life in a
community. However, at a time when the
local, state, and national economies continue to reel from the global recession, budget
shortfalls hit all sectors, and economic
uncertainty plagues individuals and municipalities alike, the arts often become a hardhit and fragile portion of community life.
The arts community in Centre County is
suffering some of that pain, yet showing its
resilience at the same time.
Nonprofit performance venues and programs depend in part of public funding
sources such as state and federal grants, and
many of these monies have dwindled in
recent state budgets. Arts programs have
seen significant cuts in the past several
years, and face still more in the 2010-2011
budget. Grants to the arts has been reduced
by an additional $2.6 million for this year
and overall funding for the arts has declined
by 42 percent over the past two years.
This means that both for-profit and nonprofit acts and venues must compete for the
same pools of money, these being corporate
and foundation sponsors, individual donations and patronage through memberships,
ticket sales and cover charges.
At the same time, Americans are spending less on entertainment. In 2009 alone,
average spending by American families on
all forms of entertainment dropped by 5
percent, according to the United States
Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics.
Live performance competes with all other
forms of entertainment – including sports,
movies, television, and gaming – for dwindling disposable dollars.
“Every nonprofit is struggling,” said
Kristy Cyone, marketing and membership
director for The State Theatre. “Yet we are
in no worse situation than we have been
since we reopened.” State Theatre, a nonprofit community theatre since 2006, seeks
to provide a performance space for a wide
variety of local and national acts, filling a
perceived need to provide a venue with
state-of-the art technical support.
Cyone admits that donations are down a
little, but that is only because of the success
of the fundraising efforts for start-up donations back in 2006. Corporate and individual giving has decreased and new giving
has been difficult, she said. However, ticket
sales have remained strong, despite the
economy, said Cyone. She explained that
the theatre is in somewhat of a unique position in terms of financial growth.
“When we reopened in 2006, the economy was already beginning its downward
turn. We started with low attendance,” she
said, “and we are still pacing upwards.”
David Shaffer, the Center for the
Performing Arts Assistant Director for
Special Programs, noted that decreased
state support means the center must rely
more and more on private support from
individuals, but that the support has been
Photo by Suzan Erem
The Guy Mendilow Band recently performed at WPSU studios, but was booked by the nonprofit
Acoustic Brew which often uses the Center for Well Being in Lemont as a venue for performances.
there.
“Membership support is strong and subscription sales are strong,” said Shaffer.
“That is a very strong vote of confidence.”
Susan Riddiford-Shedd, Artistic Director
of the Nittany Valley Shakespeare Festival,
said there is significant support in the county for live performance. The festival enjoys
support from Centre Region Parks and
Recreation, as well as some corporate and
foundation support, but Riddiford-Shedd
noted that it is not easy to find funding.
Our attendance has been astounding,” she
sadi, but that does not pay the bills since
performances of NVS are free. “It’s always
been tough on the arts,” she said, “but
artists are a scrappy bunch. We find a way
see
Arts, pg. 26
The magic marbling of Diane Maurer-Mathison
by Veronica Winters
Diane Maurer-Mathison is an internationally renowned, expert marbling artist.
Originating in Japan, marbling is the
ancient art of floating colors on a liquid
mixture of water and, in this case,
Carrageenan, an Irish seaweed, arranging
the colors to form a design and capturing
the image by making a contact print.
Maurer-Mathison uses gouache-based
watercolor paints to create swirling,
abstract and vibrant patterns that are some-
In the studio
times reminiscent of flowers, leaves,
waves, or other forms. In order for paper to
accept the colorful paint patterns that float
on top of water in a tray, the artist uses special solutions. The room’s temperature and
humidity are carefully regulated along
with paint and water characteristics. The
artist uses handmade rakes, fine combs,
bamboo brushes and even cats’ whiskers to
swirl floating paint designs in the tray. She
then places a sheet of paper onto the surface of the marbling liquid and paint, lifts
it off, and lays marbled paper out to dry.
Besides traditional paper marbling,
Maurer-Mathison also hand-marbles
papers with oil paints, acrylics and dyes
using special techniques to execute marbling on fabric and objects.
This technique originated in Japan over
800 years ago. The growth of marbling
was accelerated in Europe and America
when in 1894 Joseph Halfer of Budapest
published a work which simplified the
marbling process. That book, translated
into several languages, was published in
America as "The Progress of the Marbling
Art.”
Mauer-Mathison was introduced to the
art of marbling in late 1970s by one of her
artist friends. As a writer as well as a fiber
artist at that time, she wanted to gather
see
Marbling, pg. 29
26
from
November 2010
Arts, pg. 25
to do it.”
For performance groups and venues in
Centre County, finding a way to do it means
being innovative and willing to change. The
State Theatre is in the midst of exploring
new directions as they seek a new executive
director with the departure of Mike Negra,
who had run it since its resurrection.
The State is planning to put more emphasis on community involvement by working
to make the theatre more accessible to local
performance groups and bringing in more
local musicians, explained past board member Roy Love, who has become involved in
the theatre once again.
“In general, we will show more of a willingness to ask local groups how we can
make this possible,” he said.
The State’s administrators and board have
eliminated the set rate for use of the space
and have made the rental charge negotiable.
For example, they recently worked out a
deal to make the theatre the home for a local
studio. Heidi Biever of Singing on Stage
said they previously staged performances at
the Fairmount School but that the State
College Area School District increased
rental fees for its facilities by 500 percent.
Having all of their performances at State
Theatre provides them a state-of-the-arts
theatre at less cost.
“We will be creatively using the theatre
with the community,” said Love.
The State Theatre supports local groups
by allowing ticket sales for national touring
acts to defer costs for local groups.
“Anything that you support here goes
back to support local performing arts,” said
Cyone. She explained that while that has
always been a goal for the theatre, the ratio
of national to local groups has not always
been what they have wanted it to be, and
that the search for a new director provides
an opportunity to rethink what they have
done in the past.
Love concurred.
“We can expand the potential for diversity in programming,” he said, by allowing
those things that bring in more money in
ticket sales to offset the cost of things like
world music, jazz, and local performers.
Innovation is also coming from the artists
themselves. One such new venture comes
in the form of a regional theatre arts
alliance. The idea originated within the
“It’s always been tough on
the arts, but artists are a
scrappy bunch. We find a
way to do it.”
--Susan Riddiford-Shedd
Professional Actors Workshop, and especially with Charles and Jo Dumas who witnessed the success of a similar consortium
in Philadelphia.
“We want to streamline a mechanism for
sharing resources for local theatre groups,”
said Will Snyder, Director of Sozo Institute
for the Arts, who is now spearheading the
effort to get the alliance up and running. In
initial meetings to gauge level of interest,
Snyder said, “most people expressed the
same frustration, how to coordinate
resources and the find the best methods of
communication.”
The alliance as it is envisioned at this
point will include both school and community groups throughout the Centre Region.
It hopes to build an avenue for joint marketing opportunities, posting auditions and
events, coordinating schedules in order to
limit competition for the same audiences,
and sharing resources such as sets and costumes. “We hope to make this a forum for
bringing the arts community help in developing the arts and culture in our region,
which in turn helps each of our communities,” said Snyder.
Groups initially expressing an interest in
forming the alliance represent the area’s
diversity in the performance arts, including
Penns Valley and Lewistown school districts, the Art Alliance of Central
Pennsylvania,
the
Nittany
Valley
Shakespeare Festival, The Next Stage,
Tempest Studio in Bellefonte and Singing
on Stage.
Organizations have responded to the need
for creative solutions by broadening their
missions, as the State Theatre has done in
providing more access to local groups. The
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State
also boasts a broad-based mission to reach
out to both the campus and the surrounding
see
Arts, pg. 27
Photo courtesy of Margaret Cieply
Singing on Stage, which until recently trained actors of all ages, produced shows around the county,
including this June 2010 production of Oliver! at the State Theatre.
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27
November 2010
from
Arts, pg. 26
communities.
“We are blessed with a passionate and
committed audience,” said Director George
Trudeau.
Nonetheless, the center, which operates
Schwab and Eisenhower auditoriums, still
works to increase its audience base among
both students and area residents. “We are
top among our colleagues in terms of student audience participation,” said Laura
Sullivan, Director of Marketing and
Communications. Students account for 37
percent of audiences overall, leading other
venues among the Major University
Presenters, a consortium of 14 major performing arts university presenters.
Trudeau said the center also focuses on
its educational program in order to provide
a theatre-going experience to more elementary and secondary school students.
Trudeau and his staff work with national
acts appearing on their stages to stay an
extra day and perform for school groups.
They offer some half dozen or so schooltime matinees to schools from 20 counties,
giving thousands of children the chance to
see live performance, many for the first
time, he said.
Other area venues look to increase audiences as well to offset some losses in public
funding or to broaden a mission. Penn
State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities
hopes to raise its visibility to the local community, according to Director Michael
Berube. The institute sponsors lectures, film
festivals, music and dance performances,
symposiums, and conferences.
“It is a question of who we target,” said
Berube of attempts to engage more undergraduate students and the general public in
their events. “The long-term mission is to
understand how the institute contributes to
the intellectual life of the local community
and to lifelong learning processes,” he said.
Support for the arts depends on sponsor-
Photo by Chris Nelson
Susan Riddiford-Shedd and Wilson Hutton perform in the Next Stage production of Educating Rita. The
company now presents most of its plays in the studio on the upper floor of the State Theatre in State
College, which is broadening its mission to make more room for local performers.
“It’s not like the ‘30s when people stopped going to concerts. Now people seem to be keeping up with experience
consumption and cutting back on other non-necessities.”
--Economist Richard Florida
ship by individuals, corporations, and foundations as well as from patrons. Over the
past decade, corporate donations to the arts
has dropped by more than half, according to
the Giving USA Foundation, an educational and research program of the American
Association of Fundraising Counsel. This
has had a dire impact on the performing arts
on a national scale as concert, theatrical
productions, and even entire performance
seasons have been cancelled in recent
years.
Robert Lynch, CEO of the nonprofit
Americans for the Arts, estimated that some
10,000 arts organizations have closed up
shop, representing about 10 percent of the
total. Locally, however, sponsors are still
coming through.
Shaffer said the Center for the
Performing Arts relies more and more on
private support from individuals.
“Every year there are a couple of new
sponsors, including some unique one-time
sponsors,” he said. For example, last year a
woman sponsored a show in celebration of
her fiftieth birthday. “Yet some 90 percent
of our sponsors are returning sponsors,” he
said.
Cyone admits that the State Theatre
struggles to secure sponsors as corporate
and individual giving is down somewhat.
In this economic slump, she said, “people
are slimming down donations, and entertainment venues are just not a top priority.”
This is particularly problematic for the
State as they still have a sizable debt to pay
down, she said.
In Centre County then the nonprofit and
public for-profit organizations providing
performance venues for the arts seem to be
holding their own in this tough economy.
Patronage has remained especially strong,
and this too follows a national trend. In the
past five years, Americans spent less time
buying goods and services and more time
taking part in activities, including attending
cultural events, according to the U.S.
see
Arts, pg. 28
28
from
November 2010
Arts, pg. 29
Department of Labor.
“It’s a different kind of recession,” writes
economist Richard Florida, author of several books on urban life. “It’s not like the ’30s
when people stopped going to concerts.
Now people seem to be keeping up with
experience consumption and cutting back
on other non-necessities.”
Acoustic Brew Coffeehouse, a nonprofit
concert series, is unique in the area for not
having a specific venue for their shows,
although many shows take place at the
Center for Well Being, with larger shows at
the WPSU studios. The mission of Acoustic
Brew is to provide reasonably-priced quality folk and acoustic music in an intimate,
alcohol-free environment.
“I love the felxiblity to schedule performers where they will be the best fit, and not
being tied down to one venue,” said board
member Sally Driscoll.
Acoustic Brew concerts enjoyed very
strong patronage in the past, often selling
out shows, but attendance has dropped in
the past couple of years. Board member
Mel DeYoung blames not the economy but
increased competition for the drop in ticket
sales.
“For quite a few years we were one of the
few organizations that presented folk music
in the area. In the past few years we have
seen a number of other venues begin to
present the same kind of performers we
do,” said DeYoung. “The soft ticket
demand we’re experiencing now is more
typical of concert presenters across the
region and the country.”
The decline in attendance has hurt
Acoustic Brew financially. “The pain we
are experiencing now is that we have based
our finances almost completely on ticket
sales, rather than grants, memberships, and
other non-ticket revenues,” said DeYoung.
“If we are going to avoid deficit spending
going forward, we will either need to return
to stronger ticket sales, or rely more on nonticket revenues.”
“The reason we’ve been able to survive
for almost 20 years is the hard work of all
the volunteers,” said Publicity Director Jim
Colbert. “Nobody on our board or working
the shows receives a cent for doing so. It’s
a hardcored, dedicated group who really
believe strongly in the music, and our mission.”
Unlike Acoustic Brew which has no
home venue, Wagon Wheel Music Park in
Philipsburg boasts a rough wooden stage in
a hollow-nestled ampitheatre. Wagon
Wheel shows run through the summer
months, and comprise everything from rock
to bluegrass to country. Most groups contact Wagon Wheel in order to be able to
play in a space with such unique and
inspirting acoustics.
“We had a new one,” said Jim Berbeck.
“A jazz group called and wants to play
here.”
Wagon Wheel pays its expenses, including
musicians’ fees, through sponsors who purchase ads in their programs and through ticket sales for some bands. They also hold a
fundraising concert each summer, with proceeds going to a fund for local cancer
patients.
Wagon Wheel is in its sixth year, and
Berbeck said attendance is still growing.
The ampitheatre could easily hold an audience of 3,000 people, he said, but their
largest turnouts hare between 500 and 600.
Even with ad sponsors, food concessions,
and growing ticket sales, it can be tough
going. “You don’t quit your day job,” said
Berbeck.
Other venues for live entertainment must
rely solely on either ticket sales, cover
charges, or revenues from food and drink to
cover costs for live entertainment.
Tim Bowser, proprietor of the Elk Creek
Cafe in Millheim, said he is pleased with
the turnout they get. “We have a solid
crowd,“ said Bowser.
Elk Creek has some form of live entertainment most nights from Thursday
through Sunday. Bowser pointed out that
the goal is to explore different kinds of
music or unknown bands, allowing audiences to experience authentic music.
Musical genres span the gambit from bluegrass to rock to blues.
“Jazz was lower attended at first, but we
are starting to get a following for that too,”
said Bowser.
Thursdays offer a “pub hang” according
to Bowser, with local musicians perfoming
for the tips froma jar. “At this point we’re
getting a good crowd; it’s finally taking,” he
said. He noted that musicians contact Elk
Creek in order to be able to try out something new in a low-risk setting at the
Thursday night sessions.
Saturdays and most Sundays more wellknown bands appear on the Elk Creek
stage, and that usually involves a cover
charge. Saturday crowds are very strong,
said Bowser, but “Sundays can be hit or
miss.”
“It is my impression that the turnout has
continued to grow over the past couple of
years,” said Nick Brink, of Elk Creek. Both
Bowser and Brink note that the size of the
audience varies depending on the night of
the week and the genre of music.
Other area night spots for live music see
the same thing. “We feature live entertainment four nights a week,” said Kimberly
Korman at the Autoport, and audiences continue to grow. “I have heard it again and
again that the Autoport is the best place for
someone who is not 20-something to dance,
let loose, and have fun,” she said.
And what about those scenes for the 20something crowd? Bars, pubs and restaurants in the area report that most nights the
crwods are still good, especially for major
acts. Audiences are stronger for rock and
indy-rock than for musical genres less popular with the younger crowd, such as jazz
and folk.
On any given night, patrons can hear live
music somewhere in Centre County, from
Bellefonte’s Governor’s Pub to pubs and
restaurants from Philipsburg to Pleasant
Gap. State College alone boasts over 20
such venues, and all appear to be enjoying
strong patron support.
Public monies for the arts, in terms of state
and federal funds, continue to decline, but in
Centre County the effects have not been dire,
at least for the organizations and venues that
provide space for performing artists.
While national touring acts appear on
many area stages, home-grown talent
enjoys great support in the area. “There are
so many diamonds, and we want to feature
them in performance,” said Cyone of the
State Theatre.
Yet the continued livelihood of arts venues and performers themselves in our area
relies heavily on local support. According
to Cyone, “It’s a question of have you really jumped out of your everyday routine to
see what the area has to offer in the arts.”
29
November 2010
from
Marbling, pg. 25
information on paper marbling for her next
manuscript. As a result, the artist published
“A complete guide to producing beautiful
patterned papers and fabrics” in 1991.
Maurer-Mathison learned the craft from
two sources. The artist relied on the precise instructions of 1853 book titled “The
Art of Marbling” by English Master
Charles Woolnough, and then sought input
from American paper-artists with whom
she was acquainted.
This artist particularly enjoys marbling
fabric with acrylic paints, making exceptional, beautiful scarves for women to
wear. Maurer-Mathison actually double
marbles them to create a more abstract
design with fluid overlays of glittering and
opaque colors. With smaller pieces of fabric she creates frames and little, handbound accordion-fold books. This type of
hand-marbled art on fabric is featured
locally at the Gallery Shop in Lemont.
To create her small, dream-like collages,
including “Valley View,” the artist uses her
variously marbled papers. She cuts them,
each layer representing a particular object:
variously colored and textured paper strips
of mountain ranges, warm and cool greens
of the land, blues and whites of the sky,
glowing colors of the moon and the sun,
deep blues and greens of streams and
oceans.
The artist works from her imagination
and never uses photos to find inspiration.
On the contrary, she is moved by the
streams, mountains and valleys of the central Pennsylvania region.
“I can get inspired by the waves of the
ocean, lush, green mosses and even my
own garden,” she said.
Occasionally, she travels farther to find
her muse, creating landscapes based on her
feelings and experiences.
“Absorbing the beauty of other locations
during my trips to Alaska, Indonesia and
Hawaii as well as the Southwest have also
led to many collages,” Maurer-Mathison
said.
A self-described perfectionist, MaurerMathison works on her art with passion
and does not leave room for even tiny mistakes in her marbled paper. When she was
commissioned to hand marble a 24- by 48inch piece of paper for Godiva Chocolates
“I learned as long as I
extended myslef, made
myself available and my
work visible, good things
would come my way.”
--Diane Maurer-Mathison
Christmas cover boxes and wrapping
paper, Maurer-Mathison marbled over 60
sheets of paper to arrive at a single, perfectly marbled piece. She also created special paper designs for Lenox China and her
decorative papers have been reproduced
by a number of magazine and book publishers, including Harper Collins
Publishers and Penn State. Eventually,
Maurer-Mathison’s designs found their
way onto perfume bottles, medicine packages, brochures and stationary.
Her most recent, award-winning work
on dimensional paper collage combines
marbling and paste paper design with other
decorative paper techniques. MaurerMathison’s neatly-looking, hand-bound,
small collage books are enigmatic. They
are accordion-folded and when opened, the
heavy pages introduce viewers to other
realms. With titles like “Fantasy Gardens”
and “Fantasy Landscapes” the books illustrate an artistic journey into special,
unknown-to-man places.
“These are fantasy pieces. They are
expressions of dreamscapes,” MaurerMathison said.
These paper collages look very threedimensional because the artist doesn’t glue
one layer over the next one completely.
Rather, Maurer-Mathison leaves some
spaces in between her layered pieces of
paper, creating that extra dimension.
Maurer-Mathison has taught design
techniques and paper marbling at many art
centers and schools, such as the Erie Art
Museum, Historic Rittenhouse Town in
Philadelphia, the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington D.C, and The Penland
School and others. She also likes to share
her skill with younger generations of
artists, working as a resident artist in public schools through the Galaxy: Arts in
Photo provided
Diane Maurer-Mathison using traditional marbling technique in her studio. Maurer-Mathison uses marbling to create papers, books, and fabric scarves.
Education Program. Maurer-Mathison
shows how to create not only collages and
paper marbling, but also marbled note
cards, folios, picture frames and jewelry.
“I learned as long as I extended myself,
made myself available and my work visible, good things would come my way,” she
said.
With 13 books published, MaurerMathison has made a name for herself in
the arts community. She was invited as a
guest artist on several TV shows: “The
Carol Duvall Show”, “Home Matters” and
her latest “Martha Stewart Living” in
2002. Some of her books are out of print
today, selling for over $150 per copy on
booksellers’ websites. Maurer-Mathison’s
artwork can be found in numerous public
and private collections, including the
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Dutch Royal
Library in the Netherlands, the Harvard
University Library, the Museum of New
Mexico, the Museum of Antiquities in
China, and many more.
To contact the artist or arrange a workshop in the artist’s studio in Spring Mills,
Pa. visit Maurer-Mathison’s website
www.dianemaurer.com.